Bulletin from Castillo de
Locubín
N° 10 12th December 2009
Olives
As we mentioned at the end of the last edition, it is, of course, the start of the olive-picking season here and while the trees are laden with fruit, there is still a need for some rain to fatten them up. However, a quick look at the forecast shows nothing better than a 10% chance of rain for the rest of this week and only a 55% chance for next week.
So the full-scale picking of the olives is delayed, but that doesn’t stop the picking of small quantities for home preservation. There are several different types of olive, which require different methods of preserving and, in addition to that, various families have their own preferred methods and recipes.
Our neighbours took us to the olive groves to pick some of their olives. The ‘Picual’ olive, originating in our province (Jaén) is the most widely cultivated olive in Spain, comprising about 50% of Spain's olive production and around 20% of the world’s olive production. It has a strong but sweet flavour, and is widely used in Spain as a table olive versus being used exclusively for its oil, which has some of the best chemical properties found in any olive oil, being the richest in oleic acid and vitamin E.
Olives are a naturally bitter fruit that is typically subjected to fermentation or curing to make it more palatable. Both green olives and black
olives get repeated thorough washings in water to remove oleuropein, a bitter carbohydrate (fresh water curing). Sometimes they are also soaked in a solution of food grade sodium hydroxide (to the non-chemically minded that is commonly known as caustic-soda or drain-cleaner) in order to accelerate the process. Some green olives are allowed to ferment before being packed in a brine solution.
Before the water curing process can begin, the olives have to be split open so that the flesh is exposed to the water. The domestic method of splitting open the fruit is a rather unsophisticated crushing between two pieces of wood in a hand-operated tool that is rather like a large nutcracker (as with the two bricks method of engaging the supercharger on a camel, make sure to keep thumbs clear). Of course this method leaves the pips in and since some people prefer their olives pitted, then pitting may be carried out for those who prefer it.
Put olive(s) in gap and move arm to left, crushing the olives.
Return arm to the right and crushed (split) olives fall into the container below.
So now the olives picked this morning have to be cured. Fresh-water curing involves soaking the olives in a succession of baths, of which the water is changed twice daily. Once curing is complete they are packed in water to which various other flavourings are added (e.g. garlic, thyme, cumin, etc.) Because of the curing process they keep well either under refrigeration or at ambient temperatures.
Just so that we can get the full flavour of this olive processing lark, we are doing some with the drain cleaner. This involves soaking the olives in the sodium hydroxide solution for 12-24 hours. Drain them and rinse thoroughly, then put them in a large container with a mixture of vinegar, salt and a strained decoction of bay leaves, thyme and other herbs. They are then left for about four months to mature.
Snow
There is already a respectable covering of snow on the upper levels of the Sierra Nevada, which we noticed the other day on our trip to Granada.
This view is from the road between Alcalá la Real and our village.
Those snowcaps are about 40 miles away and up to 11,411 ft high.
Winter
Well winter is on its way with early morning frosts and temperatures dropping below zero. Our forecast over the next week sees some days having a maximum temperature of only 6C when it was up in the high teens a few days ago. The snow line on Monday is predicted at around 400 m (our house is at 713m) with a 40% chance of precipitation, which basically means we may have some snow of our own.
